The Port of Papeete is the capital
of French Polynesia. Located in the South Pacific Ocean on the northwest coast
of the island of Tahiti, this overseas territory of France is home to the
French High Commissioner. The Port of Papeete is also the main governmental,
industrial, commercial, financial, and tourism center of the Windward Islands,
containing the islands of Tahiti, Mehetia, Moorea, Maiao, and Tetiaroa.

One of the South Pacific’s biggest
metropolitan areas, the Port of Papeete is a beautiful tropical city with many
flowers and tall palm trees. In 2007, over 26 thousand people lived in the
commune proper, but almost 132 thousand called the urban area home.

Port History

Europeans first settled the Port of Papeete in 1818 when
British missionary William Crook moved there. Tahiti’s Queen Pomare IV
made the Port of Papeete her capital in the late 1820s, stimulating the town’s
growth as an important transportation and shipping hub for the region.

With an excellent natural harbor, whalers were frequent
visitors to the Port of Papeete in the 1830s. France took control and made the
Tahitian Islands a protectorate in 1842, the same year Herman Melville was imprisoned there. His
novel Omoo is based on his experiences. In 1880, the French annexed the
Port of Papeete and made it their colonial capital. In 1890, it gained the
status of a commune.

Painter Paul Gauguin
came to the Port of Papeete in 1891 and stayed there for the rest of his life,
excluding a brief two-year trip to France. In 1888, the Port of Papeete was
visited by Robert
Louis Stevenson.

In 1884, a severe fire destroyed half of the Port of
Papeete, leading the French to prohibit the use of traditional building
materials. Then in 1906, a heavy cyclone seriously damaged the city.

In 1914, two German men-of-war bombarded the Port of Papeete
and sun a French naval vessel in the harbor.

The Port of Papeete received a boost when the French moved
their nuclear weapon testing range to Muruoa and
Fangataufa from Algeria in the late 1960s. About 1500 kilometers to
Tahiti’s east, the tests began about the same time as the Faa airport was
built, giving French Polynesia its only airport.

In 1995, the French conducted the last series of nuclear
test detonations near Moruroa. Riots in the Port of Papeete lasted two days,
during which the international airport was damaged and 40 people were injured.

The Port of Papeete is a
major stop on the South Pacific trade routes, both ocean-going and airborne.
Its main exports are sugar cane, copra (dried coconut meat), mother of pearl,
coffee, and vanilla. It is also an important base for tourism in French
Polynesia and on Tahiti.

Many people, including those of European and Chinese
ancestry, began to move from other areas in French Polynesia to the Port of
Papeete’s suburbs in the late 1990s, increasing population growth once again.